How is anyone paying for CU Boulder OOS?

Paying for College
1

I just returned from my college visit to Boulder, and needless to say I fell in love. Rough ride getting there, rained out for two days at the airport but the trip was definitely worth it. I talked to my Psychology advisor and she was extremely helpful, however because of our delay on getting to the campus I was not able to meet with my Academic Advisor to talk about finances. I looked up Cost of Attendance, and my jaw almost dropped. $50,000 a year…my mom knew it was already pricy but she wants me to go there. She kept spewing about how Boulder was the perfect fit for me and how much I would enjoy living here. But…$50,000…a year

Has anyone gotten any major scholarships I should look out for? I should give you my stats, I go to a career tech high school so I’m hoping that gives me some edge
GPA: 3.88
Ranking: 10/119
Volunteer Hours: about 300
SAT: 1300 (math + reading)
ACT: not yet taken
Also I’ve kept a job for almost three years now and was the first person to win #1 Sales Associate that’s underage. Keep in mind this award is global, so I’m hoping to talk about that in my essay to also receive some edge about leadership.
AP Credits taken: 12 so far, but after my senior year I’d be taking 18 total. Also note that I’m in a rigorous program where I’m completing my high school credits but I’m also taking actual college classes. I’ll be graduating esteemed scholar with 42 hours of college credit.
I’m hoping the hours of college credit could substantially cut my costs down with attending this school. The thing is, my family isn’t necessarily “need based” but we’re not that well off either right now. Since my older brother just finished taking his Gen-Eds he’d be going OOS there with me as well and I’m sure my parents would help him pay for his education. Which means a 150k household paying for OOS tuition for two sons, I’m sure you can see my problem here now. I already know my parents are counting on me to receive scholarships just because I’ve always been a lot more academically inclined than my brother, but I really just don’t want to disappoint them either. Boulder is the perfect place for me, but I’d feel so bad if my parents had to pay out of pocket for my education.

I’ve looked at other schools and my choices are UT (in state) IU, KU and CU Boulder.
I know I know I’m going to get so many “well why don’t you just go in state and save yourself a lot of money?” the thing is the only in state school that I enjoyed was UT Austin, and although I may get accepted because of my ranking I highly doubt they’d give me any money. A&M, Texas Tech…all way too conservative for my liking and I just know I would not fit in. My goal is to get OUT of Texas, not submerse myself in more conservative culture. Don’t get me wrong, I like the state, the people are nice, I’ve just known since I was little that this wasn’t the place for me.

All in all CU Boulder is my dream school and I’m willing to work hard for an affordable tuition if someone could shed some light on how they’re paying what your payment plan looks like. Thank you!

2

There is not a lot of merit aid available at Colorado:

Your test scores and grades put you in the target group for the OOS Chancellor’s Scholarship, which is $6,250/year.

http://www.colorado.edu/scholarships/chancellors-achievement-scholarship

OOS publics are often unaffordable.

3

<<<
looked up Cost of Attendance, and my jaw almost dropped. $50,000 a year…my mom knew it was already pricy but she wants me to go there. She kept spewing about how Boulder was the perfect fit for me and how much I would enjoy living here. But…$50,000…a year
<<<

that is a lot for an OOS public that isn’t a “top” school.

What is your mom saying about paying $200k for your undergrad? Can she pay for it w/o loans?

Did she know that $50k cost when she was saying that she wants you to go? Is she expecting you to get FA or merit?

I highly doubt that a 1300 M+CR is going to get much/any merit since that is equivalent to an ACT 29, which is not high for UC Boulder, and that school isn’t generous with merit to high stats kids either.

There are other cheaper schools that are “less conservative”…that said, UT which is in more-liberal Austin, is not conservative. TAMU is typically more conservative.

4

<<<
Since my older brother just finished taking his Gen-Eds he’d be going OOS there with me as well and I’m sure my parents would help him pay for his education. Which means a 150k household paying for OOS tuition for two sons, I’m sure you can see my problem here now. I already know my parents are counting on me to receive scholarships just because I’ve always been a lot more academically inclined than my brother,


[QUOTE=""]

[/QUOTE]

I just saw the above. Your parents are naive if they expect you to get merit to bring down the costs significantly. AT most, you might get $6k or so per year…and that’s hopeful.

Your brother would get NO aid at all as a transfer.

I doubt that with a $150k income, your parents are going to want to pay 2/3 of their income towards college.

Will you please ask your parents how much they’ll pay per year for BOTH kids (either “per kid” or total…ask them). It sounds like they’re expecting you to get a HUGE scholarship so that they’ll mostly only have to pay for your brother.

Seriously, UC Boulder is not going to work. Please don’t let your parents “make it work” by borrowing a ridiculous amount.

You need to understand how merit works. The best merit comes from the SCHOOLS (not UC Boulder, tho). Your brother won’t likely get anything.

Let’s assume that you can improve your M+CR to about a 1350. That’s about an ACT 30. For you to get substantial merit.

So, find schools that give large merit and where an ACT 30 is a “top score”. At such a school, you would likely get a huge award.

Do not rely on getting outside awards…they’re mostly small, hard to get, only for frosh year, and you’d run out of aid after the first year.


[QUOTE=""]
Boulder is the perfect place for me, but I'd feel so bad if my parents had to pay out of pocket for my education.

[/QUOTE]

:slight_smile: Well, don’t feel bad…it’s very likely that your parents won’t/can’t pay “out of pocket” for Boulder.

For others reading this thread…don’t visit schools that will not be affordable …not worth time or emotion (falling in love).

5

If your parents want you and your brother to go to CU, they should move to Colorado. I’m serious. If it is that important to them for you to be in Colorado, move there, wait one year, and apply to CU.

Boulder is a very expensive town to live in. After freshman year, you’ll need to live in the community. It’s a little cheaper to live farther from the school, but then you are adding commuting fees (although buses are free) and most students want to live close to the school. Entertainment is expensive, groceries, etc.

Boulder is a great place, no question. I disagree with mom2collegekids that it is not a top school, especially in engineering and some of the sciences, but there are plenty of cheaper places to go to school. CU is expensive even for instate students and the school doesn’t have to give a lot of merit aid to in or out of state students to fill a class without outstanding students every year.

6

To answer your question, Trust funds.

CU Boulder is a very popular school and they have no reason to offer great merit for OOS as they have many students who are willing to be full pay OOS. The merit aid for instate isn’t great either.

Family did a tour of Colorado State University in Fort Collins. The Colorado students were even in number to those from Illinois and California. I understood the California students as they would pay tuition and half using the WUE which is the western undergraduate exchange. OOS tuition at CSU was 12K which was a more reasonable amount to the 27K for the Illinois students.

7

<<<
I disagree with mom2collegekids that it is not a top school,


[QUOTE=""]

[/QUOTE]

:slight_smile: @twoinanddone
Of course UC Denver (#88) is a very fine school.

What I meant is that it’s not like a top 25 school where an affluent family might somehow justify paying OOS costs (but even OOS full-freight UVA (#23), UCB (#20), UCLA (#23) would be hard to justify with UT and TAMU being instate).

8

To answer the question…only 38% are OOS. some of those are athletes on scholarships. Some have families who have lots of money.


[QUOTE=""]
Psychology

[/QUOTE]

Are you going to be a psych major? If so, please do NOT spend a lot of money on that major.

Why does your mom think that THAT school (and not many others) would be perfect for you?

9

You know…not everyone at UC Boulder has trust funds who attend from out of state. The cost isn’t any higher than most private colleges. Some parents are very willing to pay out of savings, current earnings, and loans.

10

It’s hard to look at OOS numbers at a school and guess how their bills are getting paid. Some have parents who can pay. Some are athletes or other talents. Some may have military benefits. Some may have parents whose jobs provide “tuition benefits”.

this student is hoping that there’s some tuition payment plan out there that will work for him and his sibling. Unless his parents have military benefits to give him, or he’s a star athlete, there’s really no way he and his sibling are going to be able to go to Boulder at some reasonable price.

11

Next year I’m going to be at CU Boulder in the fall, and I feel really strange saying this since I really do love my school, but I don’t think it’s worth $50,000 a year - especially not for your undergrad. Personally, I eventually decided on CU because of their merit scholarships and the fact that I have in-state tuition. It’s costing me about $5,000 a year (in tuition) to go to CU without any need-based financial aid.

This isn’t uncommon for in-state kids at CU. A lot of kids from my school are going there because it’s affordable due to in-state tuition (in comparison to other OOS colleges, of course).

Think of it this way: in-state tuition at CU is ORIGINALLY between $11,000-$15,000 per year. On top of that number, a vast majority of students use the COF fund (a $2,000 per year grant given to Colorado students who stay in state for college). On top of that, CU is WAY more generous with merit aid to Colorado students - I’m receiving $6,500 per year from CU (the combination of a scholarship awarded for my “high school achievements”, another for my ACT and GPA, and the last is awarded for an honors-type program I’m in at CU).

I’m not a super genius either - my stats are pretty good, but they aren’t AMAZING. I had a 3.7 unweighed GPA and a 32 on the ACT, and I had decent leadership/extracurriculars. Those stats are pretty similar to yours - you even have a higher GPA and a way higher class rank than I did.

So here’s my point: You and I seem like pretty similar students - the difference is, I live in Colorado, and you don’t. If you were to come to CU, you could very well be paying $50,000 a year in tuition. I am paying $5,000 a year in tuition. Keep in mind, we are paying to take the exact same classes. I don’t know about you, but that seems kind of unfair.

If I were you, I would go to a school who appreciates you. If CU offers you a great scholarship, by all means, come to CU and enjoy it! If they don’t - I really don’t think it’s worth your time. There are schools who will offer you great scholarships for your stats.

While I do love my future college and I think it’s weird for me to be advising you not to go there, I really think it could be a mistake to blow $200,000 for your undergrad on a school that isn’t insanely prestigious. I honestly wouldn’t make that kind of investment for any school unless it was an Ivy League. It’s totally up to you, but it’s just something to think about.

12

HI I agree with the others that say Boulder is probably not worth the high OOS cost. Ironically, your UT is another astronomical OOS tuition school, but very highly ranked. My D wanted to go there, but it was way too expensive for a CA kid. Many kids from Calif. look at Colorado schools. The wealthier ones just pay the money. The others just can’t afford to go there or look at Northern Arizona or Col State. I do know one student with a 31 ACT that got about $5000 for the business school at CU.

Also, friend just got into Colorado State. BUT they did not honor the WUE deal. It’s supposed to be 150% of resident tuition, but they said they weren’t sure what the state funding was going to be, and they wouldn’t know until JULY. So. what was supposed to be his financial safety school, became $30,000.

Look instead at the University of Denver, the private school. With a 29 ACT, you should get one of the top scholarships. That’s what my friend’s son got, and he got a good merit package. His GPA was around 4.2 W.
You will be in Colorado, but getting an individualized private school education for a lot less than the giant public school.

13

Hmmm. There is. Thread in the parents Forum…and the student had a 30 ACT score…University if Denver was not affordable for this family. What IS the top,scholarship…because either it’s not much, or the other student didn’t receive it…at all.

14

@Maggpie Why do you think that this student would get a top scholarship from UDenver with only an ACT 29???

An ACT 29 isn’t even in the top 25% of the school.

The school costs $60k per year. If he got some merit, the school would likely still cost a LOT. And it sounds like the brother is going to be going OOS with him (same school??). If so, then brother would likely be full freight as a transfer.

When the student comes back to his/her thread, maybe some clarification can be had:

Is your brother going to be going to same OOS school as you?

What are your parents saying about how much they’ll pay for EACH of you? How much will they pay for your bro, and how much will they pay for YOU…each year.

15

CU Boulder does not give significant financial aid to OOS students. They do very poorly by middle income families who are in-state. Very common to see a student with family income of $80K get 0 in the way of grant aid against a cost of $30K/year in business/engineering.

1 Like
16

I appreciate all the replies. I’ve talked it over with my mom and she still wants me to attend CU Boulder, just because she sees it as where I’d actually be living. Not in Boulder the rest of my life of course, but hopefully to move to Denver after I’m a licensed PA. I’ve talked to Boulder Admissions, and they’ll take about 39 of my credit hours which substantially lowers my tuition per year. That leaves me with about 64 credit hours to get my masters, and spread over a four year plan is about $14,000 a year compared to $33,000. Another idea my mom had was for me, my brother and his fiancee to all move to Boulder for a year, and then apply for residency. Since him and his fiancee will be married by that time she could also qualify for residency, and if I’m living with my brother and he claims as my guardian I could also be offered in state tuition. This is all hypothetical, of course, because our residency could get declined. But for the way it’s sounding, I for sure will not have to be full tuition since tuition costs are based on a 15 credit hour a semester schedule.

17

Other options are Utah, Wyoming, Montana if you are looking for mountains, skiing, hiking, etc. What are you looking for that makes Boulder so perfect?

18

I don’t think you have a chance at all of getting in-state residency under that scenario, so don’t count on it.

19

When it comes down to it, however, I will really have to consider my options whether I want to take the risk of attending OOS to CU. Now that the Boulder euphoria has worn off, I’m seeing more clearly where I’ll lie financially. IF I got into UT, I think it would be pretty illogical to turn that school down since there are so many OOS students wanting to go there but not having the funds to afford it. KU could also be affordable, their standards for SAT/ACT are a little lower and their scholarships are huge. My family lives in Kansas and Lawrence is a charming town. It’s definitely not Boulder, but Kansas City is about an hour drive from Lawrence. If I don’t get into UT and CU becomes way out of the question, I might just have to look at A&M. It’s not my dream school by any means, but it’s still in my home state and I could probably bare it. Also I’ve read threads of liberal students attending A&M for the education and they had a better experience than they originally thought. I’m keeping my options opened, but I mainly posted this thread to see where others lie in terms of paying for CU. Thanks for all the help.

20

I guess one of the main reasons @twoinanddone is that Colorado is still close to home, but also right next to Kansas (where my mom’s family lives) and we go there a lot for family events.